Press Release - March 6, 2008

Hong Kong's creativity was featured at "Open Book: A Very Hong Kong Book Design Display 97-07" display today (Thursday) at the Opening of the Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library in Toronto.

The display, jointly presented by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) in Canada and the Richard Charles Lee Canada-Hong Kong Library at the University of Toronto (U of T), is one of the events being organized by HKETO to promote Hong Kong’s creative industry. The HKETO, together with the Hong Kong Design Centre, last month helped launch the “Chinese Design Everyday” exhibition at Toronto’s Design Exchange, a leading design museum in Canada.

Combining its intriguing mixture of traditional Chinese and Western components, Hong Kong design plays a leading role in the visual arts of the Chinese-speaking region. The “Open Book” display, which presents a glimpse of this intriguing east-meets-west mixture, will last until May 20.

Officiating at today’s opening ceremony were the Honorable David Peterson, Chancellor of U of T; David Naylor, President of U of T; Senator Vivienne Poy; Ms Carole Moore, Chief Library of U of T; and the HKETO Director Ms Maureen Siu.

The Hong Kong design books on display will be given to the Canada-Hong Kong Library to enrich its collection. Speaking at the book presentation ceremony, Ms Siu said: “Hong Kong attaches great importance to accelerate the development of our creative economy. We aim to provide an enabling an environment to facilitate the development of creative culture, attract a pool of talents to help flourish diversified and innovative ideas, and assist the industries to explore business opportunities.

“The potential of the creative economy is immense. To accelerate and expand its growth, Hong Kong must expand the market abroad. It is therefore of paramount importance for us to promote the achievements and brand names of our creative industries overseas.”

She added that the selections at book design display exemplify the unique design identity and culture of Hong Kong, and give people a glimpse of the cutting-edge “Very Hong Kong” designs that received international acclaim.

Hong Kong enjoys a leading edge in many areas of the creative economy in the region. There are now more than 170,000 people working in creative industries, with total value-added exceeding HK$53 billion (CAN$6.8 billion) a year.

The display, launched with a book entitled Very Hong Kong. The book describes 87 design cases from in-house designers, design consultants, design entrepreneurs, brands and systems, and overseas designers. These 87 design cases provide an overview of the development of design in Hong Kong from 1997 to 2007, making it a must-own “handbook” of Hong Kong design.

Chosen for their works that embody the unique culture of Hong Kong, the book display presents the Red-White-Blue here/there/everywhere art catalogue, Yellow Bus’s Q&A; on General Education, and Miss 13-Dot in Paris, a graphic novel by renowned Hong Kong comics master known as “Fashion Designer on Paper”, Lee Wai Chun.

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For media enquiry, please contact: Stephen Siu, Assistant Director (Public Relations), of the Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office at Tel: 416-924-5544, e-mail: [email protected], or Senior Information Officer Elison Chu at Tel: 416-924-7374, e-mail: [email protected].

Click here to download a Chinese version of this press release in PDF format.